mullerb's musings

A wildlife tour! Male buck with a nice velvetee rack at the south base of Olde Stage, a big old droolee hound dog near the top, a very squashed and stinky dead skunk followed by a very live and BIG male black bear just before Lefthand. Holy crud, he was big and in the middle of the road. Heidi and I came to a screeching halt and so did he, just 8 or 10 yards in front of us. We all had the same thing in mind: "Which way do I go??!!" Luckily, before we had to make an attempt to turn around, he nervously hopped off the road and scrambled up the west slope. Cool.

A fast and fairly flat loop to get a quick spin in this PM. Skipped the NCAR ride - didn't feel like group riding today.

What a fun day! Rachel and I took the girls up their first multi-pitch climb. We hiked up to the 2nd Flatiron and climbed Freeway, an easy slob-mongering 5.4, 8 pitches long with great views of town and the plains. The girls did great! No heebie jeebies except for a slight whine from Leah up on pitch 8 crossing a bit of a reachy vertical section. The rope handling was a bit much: each belay called for 3 ropes coming up and 1 more for the swing lead heading up the next pitch. My deltoids are sore today from all that rope work. What a great way to spend Memorial Day up above the crowds of folks at the Bolder Boulder. We got a birds-eye view of the stadium and the F-16s came screeching by at eye-level just a quarter mile to the east. Once in a while a slight upslope wind would bring the music and cheers up our way but mostly we had peace and quite occasionally pierced by the screech of some nearby nesting hawks.

Dan and I left work at 10:30 and left our car behind at the RTD ParknRide in Nederland. A nice warm up along the road to the old town of Eldora. Had to poke a round a bit to find the old forest service road heading up and north behind town. Sweet. It's gated and there are few signs of abuse at the wheels of motorcycles and ATVs. A long 6 mile climb up to the incredible vista on Caribou Flats. Had to walk the bikes over several 8' tall drifts of snow lingering in the woods up above 10,000'. Took a side trail around the peak at the top of the run and got stuck bushwhacking around more snowed-in woods. After a bit of cussing and glissading down old mine chutes, we found the trail again. Bailed on the longer loop over to Rainbow Lakes and took the dirt road down to Ned instead. 5* rating on this one!

I'm liking this beastly climb. It just kicks my butt on mile 4-5. The top swoop and dip and climb to the res and back has great views and fun riding. The only think that gets me on this one is the constant worry of snapping a brake cable on the descent.

50.2mph on the downhill!! Speed demons Jose and Heidi setting the pace on the long grind up Lefthand, keeping us at a steady 15mph. Then the crawl up the switchbacks and the schuss down to town. I'm really getting to like this loop and feeling much stronger on those grinds.

Another afternoon escape from work up to Hall. This time Dan and I had the time to do the whole loop. He's getting so much stronger and better at the technical. Only one touch on the descent.

Solo. Must be a 5200' gain on those first 21 miles! That slow grind up Lefthand is bliss compared to the final mile to Ward and then the slow climb up to the gate on the Brainard Lake Road. A couple of snow drifts forced me off the saddle and there was one huge on that blocked the final 1/4 mile to the lake. Fast, fast, fast and long 21 mile glide back to the car.

What was going to be a short ride up Olde Stage and back, turned into a much more enjoyable jaunt up Lefhand and up over Lee Hill. Ran into Jeff the first mile into it and he was on his way up to Ward, training for the Iron Horse. We set a pretty mellow pace and gabbed our way up the canyon. Nice spring day with green slopes, water in the creeks and a perfect 53F.

First run of the season. Love that gain/loss. No lions in sight :) What a great way to wrap up a Monday. The foothills are lush green, the sky is that ever-changing roil of low-level cumulus and blue skies with threats of showers and the occassional distant rumble of a storm cell. Spring time.

Howling nuclear blasts from 1-3:30 PM at Boulder Res. Got there for the last 15 minutes. Had the 4.5m2 sail and still got whipped. Then someone turned the fan off. Another 40 minutes of floundering around with a handkerchief up and no wind. Gotta love Boulder sailing...